A stop and chat with Freddie Ljungberg (Q&A transcript)

(Does the week of practice feel different after a win for the first time in a month or so?) “Of course, it’s always nice to have a win. No question about it. But like I said before, I think our game works quite well. Sometimes you win a game and play like (crap), other times you don’t get a result when you’re playing well. Of course against L.A. we lost 4-nil, but at the same time it was mostly mistakes when we got down. When you look at the game in the middle of the park, not in the boxes, I think we were probably the better team. But we made mistakes. I haven’t been that worried. Maybe that’s where my experience comes in. Football goes up and down. You have to be calm and keep working at what you’re good at. We won and of course it feels better.”

(On San Jose) “We will watch the tape tomorrow. But we played them last season, they’re a good team. The beat New York 4-nil, but New York had a sending off in the 10th minute or something. It looks great at 4-nil, but you never know. It’s hard to play with 10 men. I’m just looking forward to how we are going to play. That’s what this team has to concentrate on. In how I’ve been brought up playing soccer, what you do in the important thing. What the opponent does, that’s great, but you have to be cocky enough and say, ‘We’ll be better.’ I think that’s the mentality I’m trying to get into the team. If we play well, we’ll win. Of course they might have some specific thing they’re good at, some specific corner, and you need to be ready for it. Other than that you concentrate on your game.”

(On making up for the 4-0 drubbing last year) “No, not really. I think Riley got sent off in that game. It’s small things that make a difference. We’re going to try to keep an 11 on the field and hopefully we can win the game.”

(On having a good showing at home) “If you look at it, I think people always try to play well in front of the home fans. That’s what you want to do, but if you look at how the opponents play here and when we’re on the road, it’s very, very different. When the game is a bit more open away from home we play a lot better. Here they cramp it up and that’s when it takes a bit of experience. We need to get used to it. A lot of teams cramp in, L.A. did it as well, and go forward on the counterattacks and we make mistakes, and we don’t win the games. That’s something we need to get used to. To play against a compact defense we need to — as we say in Europe, against the padlock (defense) is fiddle with it before you score. Getting the balls in and out and make them work. You might not score until the 70th minute, but hopefully then you get going. Once you score the first goal it’s much easier. You have to look at how the opponents play, because of course we want to put on a good show. We try, but if the other team just wants to defend, it’s not that easy.”